Compassion Vs. Empathy

Photograph by Terree Yeagle, themomentphoto.com

These are two emotions that we get confused about and interchange. They are tricky especially for woman because we feel the world rather than think it. Not that we don't think but we feel very deeply so these words are very much part of our experience. To know the difference and how to use them rightly is important to our health.

Since we feel the world and the all is teaching us to think more than feel we are missing our keen intuition and insight for answers. Without blending our thinking and feeling we are not experiencing how the world truly exists for us. How many times do we put aside our feelings, our joy aside, our mission aside?

Compassion is to feel deeply for someone and honor their struggle, their issues, their life experience. You can be compassionate and not have to go deeply into empathy. You can listen to a tale of someone, hear their challenge and send them love and bear witness to their story. Then you can walk away giving them love and courage but get back to what you were doing.

Empathy is walking in another's shoes. It is feeling what it would be like to be in their situation. Feeling it. We often do this as woman rather than just use compassion. We feel their challenge as though it is ours. Feeling everyones challenge is exhausting. It mirrors in us a similar challenge or situation and we go to that feeling space. We are now in a low vibration, we feel their challenge and now we have our own one called up. We feel it all, both emotions. This is not truly a powerful place to be. We have now felt ones challenge and called up our own. Hmmmm.

As woman, we must be aware of this difference. To be compassionate means to see ones strife, feel your heart offering love to them and courage. That is it. We don't have to go into feeling their actual feelings. We can bear witness. and get back to our own feelings. We don't need to go into the depth, the pain, the strife as though it is our own. It is not. We do not need to follow the energy of being down with them too. They need an energy that is up to lift them. This is the gift of compassion. It lifts others to their becoming. Empathy is a tool. It helps us see and know where to add compassion.

Misusing empathy and feeling everyone deeply is exhausting, unhealthful and slowing us down. It is bringing much more strife and challenge to our already hectic lives. Learn to use your sense of others being down, challenged, not ok as a clue as to where to add compassion. Keep your space clear to know the difference between your feelings and anothers feelings. You can only understand, shift and clear your own feelings. Sensing where love and support needs to go is the gift of empathy. We are not here to solve and fix others. We are hear to support them in fixing themselves. Find your own limit. Discover how to use your emotional nature rightly. It is a wonderful gift that is not being harnessed properly.

 Empathy offers another gift as well. It helps us clear our judgement of others. When we  actually feel them, we naturally want to help and make things better for them. Judgements we may have had can be released. How many times have you thought something about someone until you actually had a moment to converse. Once you actually connected and experienced them, you shifted your thinking? This is the other blessing of empathy that teaches us.

It is a wonderful gift, empathy. It is how we can be in a crowd and know who needs help. It is not a thinking. It is a feeling and often one can say they are well and we know they are not. Their hiding their feelings and we know it instinctively. Honor this. Realize it helps you to release judgement of others and know where to send courage and compassion. Then get back to your own feelings and life. You will help yourself and others more effectively rather than be weighed down by your emotional nature. You will find you can help more with compassion by using your empathy to see where it is needed. Then let go the empathy and offer compassion. It is the way of nurturing. It is the gift of our helpful feeling nature. Learn to use it rightly rather than negate it as a hindrance. You will find more peace when you use these two emotions rightly and differently.